Health advisory to the Government of Vietnam on UHC

The Government of Vietnam are committed to pursuing UHC as part of strategic efforts to improve the social circumstance of its citizens. They are pursuing a policy of social health insurance which has encountered a number of complex financing issues.
Asia Care Group were commissioned to advise the Government of Vietnam on how to improve its approach to financing/contracting with providers (both acute and primary) in order to maximise limited social insurance funds, and ensure these were directed appropriately. This included a root and branch review of pay-for-performance models that linked financing to the achievement of core metrics.

Reviewed the Government’s current financial approach and mid-term viability of social health insurance, with a particular emphasis on the contracting/network arrangements that had been put in place for the provision of care. Advised on areas for improvement.
Helped the Government to develop/mobilise a new approach to provider financing that helped ensure that payment/reimbursement was clearly linked to performance metrics. Supported the Government to define these metrics.
Provided advice and guidance on key areas of challenge, such as how to weight payments to further incentivize improvement, how to manage poor performance and, how to monitor and take remedial action if needed.

We supported The Government to build its internal systems: linking social health insurance payments through to performance indicators, in the context of improving UHC.
Specifically we helped with both hard aspects (developing models, frameworks for provider management) as well as building the confidence and capability of staff to deliver the system as an ongoing activity.
The Government of Vietnam is actively looking to increase its PPB/P4P activity, and we expect to see further use and development of the models and systems put in place.